Greater Austin

With all the doom-and-gloom that’s all too common in the media today, it can be hard to see the silver lining in the clouds. I can write feel-good posts all day long, but sometimes it just takes some cold, hard facts to let you know that maybe things aren’t quite that bad after all. Check out these statistics and you’ll see what I mean:

The Good

• Active listings in the Austin area have increased by 16.83% over last year. During the week of June 27 through July 3 in 2009, there were 11,603 active listings; currently, there are 13,556!
• The number of new listings has increased by 16.89% over this time last year.
• The number of sold units increased by 6.56% during the month of June.

The Not-So-Good

• The average price of new listings went down by 9.5% for the month of June.
• The average price of homes that sold in June declined 3.47%.
• The number of pending sales decreased by 14.31% during the week of June 27 through July 3.

The Bottom Line

If you focus on the “not so good” statistics alone, Austin’s housing market looks pretty depressing (especially when you look at that whopping double-digit decline at the end). But if you take a closer look at the numbers, you’ll notice something very interesting.

For the most part, the negative stats are short-term, while the positive stats  are usually long-term. What does that mean? It means that like most of life, it’s all about perspective. If you look at the here and now (let’s say, within the past month or two), you may see a lot of big declines in new and pending home sales, but if you pull back and look at the bigger picture (a year’s worth of data or more), those same declines become pretty minimal, and you’ll even see some increases.

Like many other areas in life, where you put your focus matters. It could make all the difference between you seeing a silver lining or a big patch of dark clouds. Think about that the next time you see headlines proclaiming the end of the world in real estate.

That’s all for now! Take care of yourselves and each other, and remember…

NOW you have options!